July 18, 2022

Thoughts on Alaska:

-Rain rain and more rain. We had one partly sunny day where we discovered that there are actual mountains in Alaska. -Fireweed flower is everywhere. Pretty. -Hatcher pass was cool. Clouds were cool. Would have liked to have also seen it without clouds but see above thought on rain. -The lack of night is really interesting. Is it 10am or 6pm? Hard to tell. -Talkeetna and Whittier are weird towns. Talkeetna is not far out of the frontier and Whittier is not far out of the Cold War. But Whittier was pretty if you didn’t look at the town aspect of it. -26 glacier cruise was fabulous. The glaciers were cool and the wildlife awesome. Bald eagles, sea lions, seals, a whale, and sea otters! The raft of sea otters was my favorite. -Fireweed ice cream does not taste like a flower. Pretty sure it has minimal flower in it. The random Alaskan lady wanted me to take my picture with her and my ice cream. -Anchorage has awesome fries and good burgers. And of course good seafood. Ate at Simon and Seafort’s. And Humpy’s. Both expensive. I liked The Salmon Spot in Talkeetna the best with a salmon chowder bread bowl. -Saw a bear! Only got to watch for a few minutes before a bus tour showed up and scared bear away. The whole drive to Denali was magical. No mountain but the clouds plus scenery were awesome. -Swans!!! :). So funny that we saw swans. -Saw more wildlife near the visitor center than on the 40 mile bus ride in Denali. Moose and rabbit. Did see Dall sheep way up on the mountain. I got credit for finding them. -Hatcher Pass was again awesome on round 2. A little less clouds this time. I loved this drive. -Fishing was way fun. “Fish on!” D and Kelly caught while I casted and watched. -Moose and bald eagle we saw while on the river for fishing were way cool. Top animal sightings along with the bear and sea otters. -Nightmare coming true as the big salmon our guide had hooked on his line comes right at me standing in the river and swims right by me - way too close. -We’ll need to come back.